Do aliens live inside Egyptian pyramids?

Balancing on his head in the shadow of the ancient pyramids of Giza, a Dutch visitor tries to connect to the spiritual forces he says are swirling around the monuments during Wednesday's solar eclipse.

Balancing on his head in the shadow of the ancient pyramids of Giza, a Dutch visitor tries to connect to the spiritual forces he says are swirling around the monuments during Wednesday's solar eclipse.

"The eclipse is a special moment in time and the shape of the pyramids attracts a universal energy spiral," Robin, who did not give his full name, said after meditating at the foot of the largest of the pharaonic mausoleums in the desert outside Cairo.

"We are all made of light. Light is what binds us all and makes all us humans one, so this is a very important time to be here," said the Dutchman while standing barefoot in a circle of people meant to symbolise the sun.

In the far west of Egypt, thousands of people, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, gathered at the border town of Salloum to witness the full solar eclipse.

At the pyramids, outside the track of the total eclipse, the light dimmed and the air cooled as the moon passed in front of the sun without hiding it completely from view.

"There is a lot of mystery about the pyramids. There are things about the pyramids that the scientists don't recognise," said Robin, sitting next to the 4,500-year-old Cheops Pyramid.

PYRAMIDS AND ALIENS

Knowing the prominence of the sun in ancient Egyptian religion, researchers visiting the site said it was exciting to witness the eclipse at the pyramids, which some archaeologists have said may have been aligned to the stars.

"The only thing that would have kept me away was being dead," Blair Wilkins from Britain said.

Wilkins, a researcher of ancient myths and legends, said he had been waiting 18 years for the event since finding a stone artefact at nearby pyramids depicting an eclipse in the area thousands of years ago.

"I didn't know what would happen ... There are so many unanswered questions. You never know, maybe the pyramids will open up and aliens will come out of them," he said with a smile.

As the moon passed in front of the sun, Wilkins hushed other onlookers. "Did you hear that subsonic boom?" he asked.

Many visitors had not heard about the eclipse until they were told by hawkers on the pyramid plateau, who were selling special viewing glasses next to their usual stock of plastic pyramids and postcards.

"I don't know about the special energy stuff but one way or another its a spiritual thing to be here for the eclipse," said Herve L'Hermitte, a French engineer visiting the pyramids for the first time.